As someone who teaches English and is a student of French, I am often asked (and have asked myself), what is the primary objective when learning a new language? I believe the answer is straightforward, although from personal experience reaching this goal is less so and requires a lot of continuous effort! Because I believe for the majority of people, success with a new language comes down to being understood and being able to understand in most situations.
About two years ago, before moving to France from Australia, I was on a trekking holiday in the Pyrenees. One night we stayed in a hostel run by an English couple and I asked them how they had managed with speaking French when they first arrived. They said it was difficult but to make it easier (and less overwhelming) for the first six months or so, they spoke only in the present tense and added time words such as ‘tomorrow’ or ‘last week’ when they wanted to talk about the future or the past. Although not strictly correct, it allowed them to be understood in their daily lives until they were able to improve their level of French.
For a student learning another language, it’s important not to be worried about making mistakes. It’s normal, and in fact it’s necessary to learn and improve. Being overly concerned about making mistakes has certainly held me back from speaking French on many occasions. I found that to get over it, I had to put myself in situations where I had no choice but speak French and yes, make mistakes. You soon learn what you need to know to be understood. For me, the second part, understanding what others are saying, is more complex and depends on many things: the subject matter and my interest in it, people’s accents and the speed and volume at which they talk, and importantly, how tired I am. But with exposure to new words and expressions, and with active listening, it does improve.
For a teacher, I believe it’s very important to not sweat the small stuff. There’s nothing more off-putting when trying to speak another language than being continually interrupted each time you make an error, however minor it is. I like to let people talk and then come back to the major points, especially the ones that interfere with meaning. A good example of this is pronunciation. Francophones find it difficult to pronounce the ‘th’ sound in English and will often use a ‘z’ sound in words such as ‘their’ or ‘the’. But it doesn’t make the words incomprehensible. After all, many people from Ireland pronounce ‘th’ with a straight ‘t’ sound and the vast majority of the English-speaking world has no problem understanding them! As students progress, small things such as this can be worked on depending on personal goals.
Of course, the only way to reach the objective of being understood and being able to understand is to practise, practise and then practise some more. Allow yourself to make mistakes. And the following applies equally for students as it does for teachers: don’t sweat the small stuff!
